Amazon Wants To Bring Alexa To Low-Powered Devices

Software usually requires a certain level of hardware to run, and depending on the application, it could be run by just about any device, or only a device with enough power. This in turn creates limitations since not all devices are created equal, but this is something that Amazon is hoping to overcome as they are eyeing the possibility of bringing Alexa to low-powered devices.

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So what do we mean by that? In case you didn’t know, for a device to power Alexa Voice Services, it would need at least 100MB of RAM and an ARM Cortex A-class processor. However, Amazon has since lowered those requirements where it only requires as little as 1MB of RAM and a Cortex M-class processor.

This is excellent news for hardware makers who are hoping to incorporate Alexa into more devices as it means that they can soon start to use it with devices like lightbulbs, light switches, toys, thermometers, and more. Speaking to TechCrunch, AWS IoT VP Dirk Didascalou said, “We now offload the vast majority of all of this to the cloud. The only thing that the device still needs to do is wake word detection.”

This is actually pretty exciting news and will only serve to strengthen Amazon’s hold on the IoT market.